When the order comes in, we check multiple locations to see if it is already available. We search:
- Our Library’s Collection
- Louis Database: The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) maintains and promotes the Louis Database of Accessible Materials. It contains information on accessible print materials produced by about 160 organizations throughout the United States. These materials include books in braille, large print, audio, and electronic file format. If a book is available, we will purchase it directly from the vendor that produced the book.
- Bookshare®: Bookshare® is the world’s largest accessible online library for people with print disabilities. We encourage you to search Bookshare® yourself before ordering.
- NIMAC (National Instructional Materials Access Center) repository, housed by the American Printing House for the Blind. NIMAC is a federally-funded, searchable online file repository of K-12 print textbook content in the XML-based NIMAS (National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard) format. Based on the DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) standard, NIMAS itself is not intended for distribution directly to students – it requires conversion to become a fully-accessible textbook. We do require a print book even if there are NIMAS files available.
If we aren’t able to locate the book anywhere, we will need a print copy to produce the item from scratch. The print book will not be returned. We send simple worksheets and smaller books/projects to our Volunteer Braillists. The large textbooks and more complex worksheets and assignments go to several different vendors throughout the U.S.
